Last Resort

by Andrew Lipstein

In his blazing debut novel Last Resort, Andrew Lipstein blurs the lines of fact and fiction with a thrilling story of fame, fortune, and impossible choices.

Caleb Horowitz is twenty-seven, and his wildest dreams are about to come true. His manuscript has caught the attention of the literary agent, who offers him fame, fortune, and a taste of the literary life. He can’t wait for his book to be shopped around to every editor in New York, except one: Avi Dietsch, a college rival and the novel’s “inspiration.” When Avi gets his hands on it, he sees nothing but theft—and opportunity. Caleb is forced to make a Faustian bargain, one that tests his theories of success, ambition, and the limits of art.

Andrew Lipstein’s Last Resort is the razor-edged account of a young man's headlong journey into authenticity. As Caleb fights to right his mistakes and reclaim his name, he must burn every bridge, confront his own desire, and finally see his work from the perspective of those locked inside.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Novels, Contemporary, Literature, Adult Fiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 18, 2022

About the author

Andrew Lipstein is an American novelist. He wrote Last Resort (2022), The Vegan (2023), and Something Rotten (2025).

Andrew lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three sons.

Reviews

[Andrew Lipstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book because I wrote it.

[Faith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is yet another book about an author stealing another author’s idea or book. It feels like there have been a few of those books lately. In this book, Caleb uses a story (which may or may not be entirely true, but involves real people) to write his first novel. Some people aren’t too happy about that.

I am going to have to take issue with the blurb which describes this book as “a thrilling story of fame, fortune and impossible choices”. There is nothing thrilling about the book. And the choices were not difficult for Caleb because his ethics were skewed and he thought about no one but himself, so doing what he wanted was always the obvious choice. He callously dropped several women along the way, while professing how heart broken he was about it. At least he got exactly what he deserved at the end. The book was readable, even if there was a certain amount of tedium reading about the pity party of this 20-something narcissist. 3.5 stars

[Ron Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last October, Robert Kolker wrote a story for the New York Times Magazine about two writers locked in a messy legal battle. Ostensibly, their dispute revolved around a claim of plagiarism: Dawn Dorland asserted that Sonya Larson had stolen her real-life description of donating a kidney and used it as the basis for a short story.

But Kolker’s article — “Who Is the Bad Art Friend?” — lit up social media because it was about more than an arcane plagiarism argument between two unknown authors. In a feat of superb reporting, Kolker captured something unsettling about our tenuous ownership of life experiences and the vampiric practice of fiction writing.

In the hall of mirrors that is literary culture, Andrew Lipstein has now published “Last Resort,” a novel about a bad art friend. No one is accusing Lipstein of plagiarizing Kolker’s article — his novel was finished long before the Times piece appeared — but “Last Resort” offers an uncanny dramatization of the issues Kolker explored. Clearly, we live in an age sweaty with anxiety about authenticity.

The story opens in the middle of every writer’s dream: Caleb Horowitz has attracted the attention of a big-shot agent who thinks his manuscript is terrific. This could be Caleb’s chance to stop working for a payday loan app he doesn’t understand. Spanning the high-brow/low-brow divide with a gymnast’s dexterity, he has produced that most sought-after treasure: a scandalous literary novel. His steamy plot revolves around an orgy on a Greek isle with a. . . .

To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...

[Madeleine Laing · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun and funny, but got less fun as it went on and the main character made stupider and stupider choices for boring 30 year old white guy reasons.

[Angus (Just Angus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's only January yet I think I've already found one of my favourite books of the year.
Excellent stuff. I could not put this down.

[Mary H · Rating 1 out of 5]

WOW! I have read a 'blazing debut novel' - unfortunately i missed the blazing part.

This was absolutely terrible. The denouement came about a minute before the halfway point, when I realised that the 'plot' was never EVER going to get any better. The premise was what drew me in to order this from the library, but it was SO WASTED.

This is basically a book about a white American man's insecurities. The "story" is nonexistent. For example, we get a detailed description of a dinner party he attends and the conversation therein, but absolutely no other mention of it ever again - and who on earth are these people he's at dinner with, who are these friends (never ever mentioned at any other time) who come to his apartment? Who cares that he has issues with his eyes since it it nothing to do with the plot.

However I have to give credit where credit is due: Lipstein is great at giving us many details about his bloody flip phone. What is it that Lipstein is trying to show the reader - that smart phones are ridiculous? (unless they need to be constantly borrowed off people who bother to pay for them for using lift-share apps, emails, internet. Even when this character has a hefty amount of dollars he still chooses to use the flip phone. But who cares??? And then we have to have a litany of apps that are in use. Again, I fail to see the purpose? Maybe we're meant to think even more of this self-obsessed, boring character because he is able to use technology despite not possessing a smartphone.

His girlfriend has no characteristics whatsoever apart from being female - and why on earth did he ever drop his previous girlfriend who apparently he 'loved'? Actually none of the female characters have any characteristics whatsoever. And the male ones don't have many!

[Tristan · Rating 3 out of 5]

For as much hype as this book received, I'm surprised at the low numbers of reviews here on goodreads. I'm not surprised by the rating as it tracks with my experience of the book.

For one, the premise of the book, that the creator of an idea for a novel would get to be credited as the author and the actual writer would get the money, struck me as a bit too far fetched. I'll give credit to Lipstein, he made it work in the book. What didn't work for me was the characters decision to track down the couple that inspired the story. Did he think they would never mention that happening in their lawsuit? He didnt use a fake name or seek to hide his identity in any way. Just stupid. I never followed how that decision was going to somehow fix his problems. The book jumped the shark a bit for me there.

Part III just didn't make sense to me. I did not follow the characters motivations for tracking down Sophia and deciding to follow her to New Zealand.

As a lawyer the scenes with lawyers bothered me. Not egregiously bad like some thrillers, but these lawyers moved way too quickly.

I disliked the lack of quotation marks and the use of italics to denote text instead.

This book suffered from having been read after The Plot. This is a decent book, but The Plot did a better job with a similar concept.

[Evelyn Mulwray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Almost put this book down because it started so badly -- the first few chapters are a confusing, convoluted mess. I'd also like to add that “Last Resort” holds some kind of record for me, because I don't think I've ever hated a main character so quickly.

The story picked up a little bit after the main action got started, to the point where I couldn't put it down; I really wanted to keep reading and find out what happened. At mid-way through part II, I started to wonder if I hadn't completely misconstrued the story. Was Lipstein actually a genius...? The fall-out from the protagonist's success was so well-written and unexpected that I started to feel like this book might actually be brilliant. Except -- except -- if the protagonist's whole egocentric mess was meant to be satire from the beginning, it felt a little bit late in the plot to establish such a tone.

Things took a downturn towards the end of part II, however, and it started to seem like Lipstein had no idea where to take his story or how to end things. By the time the conclusion had started to raise its ugly head, I started to feel like Lipstein was missing the point entirely.

In addition to that, I felt like this book could have used a hefty edit. There were shifting viewpoints within the story that I think were just sloppy, not even completely intentional: at times first person omniscient narration, at times talking directly to the reader. By the third section of the book it really seemed like Lipstein was just completely over telling the story and wanted the thing to die on its own. ALSO, the first section of the book rapidly jumps between time frames (NY and LA a few years before; Florida) with no clear delineation between them, to the point that it’s very difficult to keep track of where you are and at what point in the story. I read this book over two days and still had a lot of trouble remembering where I was; I can only imagine it would be next to impossible for a reader who put it down for a few days at a time.

By the time the "big reveal" came around, I had completely stopped caring; maybe I just read too much but it seemed like an obvious possibility. Anyone who reads commercial fiction would have figured it out, rendering it ineffective as a last-ditch effort to save the story. By the last sixty pages I was actually screaming "let it die, let it die" and nearly allowed myself to stop reading because it was actually annoying me that much.

Here were some lines that were super confusing or else just annoying:

"She waited for confirmation and I nodded, even though I wanted anything but for her to continue, because if I didn't know what was coming I at least knew it would be something I'd immediately want to unhear." (What?)

"Before I could answer he asked if I knew how much of a limb he'd gone out on for me. I couldn't help but think of the logical fallacy built into the question -- if it assumed that when he'd signed me he knew all of what I just told him, if he knew what he was getting himself into, then not a long limb, and if it more practically assumed he knew only what he could know, then still a very short limb, not a limb at all." (took me three reads to understand this, and still couldn't help wondering if the author was stoned upon writing)

"I approached it on the heels of my feet." (understandable, but probably not the best analogy)

and

"She gave me a look that said Austin, and I looked back at the book in a positive way so as not to seem resentful. After a measured pause I asked if she planned to tell him about what happened last night. Her face bloomed into a guilty, pained expression that meant, Yes, because I have been meaning to break up with him, and this will be part of that conversation." (love it when a character, especially a male character, intuits such a specific intention from a single look.)

Two minor things that annoyed me:
- The amount of time spent describing Caleb’s novel-writing process and his periods of self doubt, followed swiftly by self-congratulatory adulation. Sweet Jesus, reading about someone writing is boring enough in and of itself, but combined with this internal monologue – yet another reason I almost threw the book across the room.
- Caleb makes a really surprising comment to Louis about Sandra towards the end of the book, and even though Louis has no prior knowledge of their situation, he responds without emotion or surprise. I get that Louis is meant to be an emotional android, but even so, I felt that this was yet another example of how Lipstein simply didn’t know how to let his book go gently into that good night.

Look, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s not fair to judge a book on what its author has posted in relation to said book, but I can’t help feeling irked whenever an author writes a coy review on Goodreads like “Five stars because this is my book and I love it.” I’m looking at you, Andrew Lipstein. Can’t authors come up with something original that still manages to convey Yes, I know that I’m annoying for giving my book five stars, but I want the aggregate rating to trend upwards, and if I make a coy remark about said action then perhaps people will be charmed by the faux self-deprecation and therefore not hate me for it. ? It’s never worked for me, in any case.

[Ieva Andriuskeviciene]

Tiesiog ne. Nežadu kankintis šiais metais su vidutinėm

[James B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. Caleb Horowitz is a young man desperate to become a published novelist. He leaves NYC to travel the country to write and look for some kind of inspiration. In Los Angeles he spends one night with Avi Dietsch, a marginal friend from college. Avi ends up telling him a fascinating story about his recent vacation he spent in Greece, involving an affair and tragedy. Celeb, without telling Avi, takes that true story and turns it into a novel that catches the attention of a famous book agent and sparks a bidding war. It looks like Celeb is going to get everything he’s every wanted, until Avi comes back into his life and demands justice for having his story stolen from him.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pros: The premise of this book reminded me a bit of The Plot—an author who takes a premise from another author and then writes the book. Luckily, what happens after that in both books is very different. While The Plot was frustratingly predictable, I did not know where this book was going, which made for a much better reading experience.

Cons: This is not a con but more of a note to readers—the characters in this book are not likeable people the reader will want to cheer for. I am not a reader who needs likeable characters, but I know some readers are. For those readers, this is probably not the book for them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to this book.

3.5 stars

[Paul Dinger · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a total garbage book. I didn't just dislike it, by the end I felt a real animus. Poorly written with page long paragraphs, confusing descriptions, stilted sentences, this wouldn't get past a freshmen's comp class. The plot starts off good then it veers and goes into crazy directions, none of which are good. This isn't suspenseful or exciting, it is dull and I can only hope, utterly forgettable.

[charlotte, · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was all going okay until the line my defence of Israel was instinctual (and, admittedly, a bit irrational) because okay! you could go this entire book without mention of an apartheid state let alone trips to it! that and i know the mc is meant to be insufferable and fixated on this one thing but it did start to drag in the second half

[Row · Rating 2 out of 5]

Self indulgent. Every male writer cliche wrapped into one.

[Joshua Witham · Rating 4 out of 5]

As in The Vegan, the self-implosion Lipstein allows his character to undertake feels distinctively Male in a way that never quite comes across as explicitly deconstructionist but is no less incisive in its approach.

[Adam B · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, Caleb, if you are endlessly refreshing Goodreads, seeing how many ratings you’ve received, calm down, and smoke a bowl. You’ve become a writer, and you are writing your own story.

Oh, I thought you were an idiot. You made a deal with the devil, but one I thought you could manage. You had the girl, the apartment, the couch (?), and I cringed hard when you decided to throw it all away when you awkwardly visited Joe and Reagan. And then to throw it away all over again with Sandra…but I’ve thought about it, you needed to do it to be authentic…authenticity always has a price and you are no different…so congratulations on living your own life; few, as always, do.

—
This was an energizing book — a literary thriller with some real suspense, but also a book to be thought over…what’s the value of ideas over execution? How do you write in a transparent interconnected world where your inspirations can be discovered immediately? (This is why there are some thematically similar rumblings in the literary world). And how do you live an authentic life when it’s easy to sell yourself out to a fintech startup? (I get this last one may seem narrow and esoteric to some, but I get it.) Recommended.

[Jason Turow-Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you're interested in reading a novel about a main character who stumbles, sometimes literally from too much drinking, through a painfully self-destructive journey that seems to lead to nowhere, this book is for you. I found it punishing to read and hate-read the entire thing. I kept hoping the main character would grow, but he only became more annoying.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

250k for a debut novel from an unknown author?!? But really, I love a book where the protagonist absolutely refuses to grow as a person.

[eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

really enjoyed
especially the ending !!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caleb Horowitz is trying and failing to write a publishable first novel when he meets up with old college friend Avi Dietsch. Avi tells him a true story about a dying woman that somehow inspires Caleb to write well when inventing things was only leading him into dead ends. When he's finished the manuscript, he grabs the attention of a 'big shot' literary agent who plans to sell the book for a lot of money. Unfortunately, Avi gets wind of what Caleb's done, and demands that Caleb recompense him for the use of 'his' story - even though it actually belongs to neither of them.

Last Resort, Andrew Lipstein's debut novel, feels like a more literary and more satisfying version of Jean Hanff Korelitz's The Plot (with some weird echoes of Lee Cole's Groundskeeping). Unlike Korelitz, Lipstein doesn't try to convince us that the story Caleb 'steals' is especially brilliant or unusual - the success of his novel is partly what he does with that story and partly the buzz that builds around the book because of the circumstances of its creation. It's an interesting reworking of 'write what you know', positioning Caleb as a writer who has to work from real life, but not his own life. And although Caleb is ultimately a bit of a douche, Lipstein gets us to root for him - I think partly because Avi's initial accusation is pretty ludicrous, although Caleb ends up doing things that are just as bad as he seeks his revenge. And even though Caleb makes a lot of stupid decisions throughout the course of the novel, I always understood why he made them.

Lipstein keeps the reader guessing, as well, developing the plot in such a way that we feel surprised but not cheated about what happens next. This makes Last Resort totally gripping, as Lipstein manages to throw in one of these twists every time the pacing starts to slow and we feel like the consequences of Caleb's original decision are fully played out. Yet because of the characterisation of Caleb, these twists feel earnt - they proceed from what we already know about the character and the way that he operates. And while I imagine some readers will find Caleb so unsympathetic that they can't get on with this novel, this wasn't my experience at all. Instead I identified with him much more than I felt I should given his general idiocy. A final fun fact: Lipstein actually wrote the version of 'Last Resort' that Caleb writes, but couldn't get it published. What a great way to make use of an abandoned novel.

I received a free proof copy of this novel from the publisher for review.

[BookBagDC · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story about identity and ownership.  Caleb Horowitz is a struggling author, hoping to write the next great novel.  On a road trip, he looks up a former acquaintance from college, Avi Dietsch.  He and Avi were not exactly friends, but knew each other well in the way of people who travel in the same circles in college.  Avi offers to host Caleb for a night.  Over drinks, Avi shares a shocking story of what happened to him on his recent vacation.  

After the two part ways, Avi sends Caleb a short write-up of his story, seemingly the (very rough) beginning of a novel.  Caleb cannot get the story out of his mind, and he uses it as the basis of his own novel.  His manuscript catches the attention of a top literary agent.  Caleb is excited for the agent to shop the book around to publishers and hopefully secure his dream of a book deal, with one exception -- the publishing house where Avi now works.  Despite Caleb's best efforts, Avi gets his hands on the manuscript and believes that Caleb has stolen his story.  He confronts Caleb, forcing Caleb into an agreement that will come to define, and then test, his life.

This book was terrific.  It offers interesting perspectives on ownership of ideas, ambition, and, most of all, the nature of success -- what constitutes success and to what degree does success require the acknowledgment of others.  Through Caleb, we see how the search for success shapes all aspects of his life, including his closest relationships, even if its meaning often seems elusive even to him.  Novels about novel writing can be difficult to pull off, but this one more than succeeds — offering a sharp-eyed and revealing look into the life of authors, the creative process, and the business of publishing.

Strongly recommended!

[Aoife Cassidy McM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last Resort is another meta novel (a book within a book), this time about Caleb Horowitz, a 30 ish year old who is struggling to write his first novel when an encounter with an old college friend Avi gives him inspiration. The only problem is that it is Avi’s story he takes, turning a real life foursome in the Greek Islands into a novel (also called Last Resort) that publishers are clamouring for.

The plagiarism angle has been compared to The Plot, which I have on Kindle but haven’t read yet, albeit that this is a more character-driven, literary narrative as opposed to a thriller. It contains some suspense but not really enough to call it a pageturner.

Caleb is not a particularly nice person. He has very questionable ethics and judgment, but he manages to justify the dubious decisions he makes on grounds that allow the reader to bear with him, up to a point. The writing is lovely, though I found the female characters a little flimsy, without any defining characteristics. I think I might have preferred to read the meta Last Resort, as opposed to this real life one!

If you like character-driven books with a New York angle and you don’t mind a fairly obnoxious male protagonist, then this might be worth a whirl. A decent debut, nicely written, but not hugely memorable. Not my pick of this week’s releases. 3/5 ⭐️

Many thanks to the author, the publishers @orionbooks @wnbooks for the opportunity to read an ARC via @netgalley. As always, this is an honest review.*

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book made me feel like I was stuck at a party with someone telling me an extremely boring story for hours. It’s saturated with the male gaze. Basically every criticism that the fictional book received can be applied to this book. I am mad at myself for wasting time finishing it, but I always want to know what will happen next. I’m also mad at NYT for recommending this and don’t know if I can ever trust them again.

I haven’t hated a main character this much in a long time. He is lazy, entitled, self-absorbed, and incapable of thinking through his decisions. He exhibits no growth whatsoever throughout the story.

I also hated the writing style. There are no chapters, just 3 long “parts” which is probably fine with a physical copy, but I listened to the audiobook and 215 minutes until the next stopping point was a bit off-putting.

There are several characters who only come up once, yet great detail is gone into about them for absolutely no reason. All of the female characters have no personality at all and it is unclear why MC is so in love with his various girlfriends throughout the book.

Also, he doesn’t have a smartphone. Not because he doesn’t need one, because he uses Tinder on his computer, is always looking for wifi, or asking people to call him an Uber, so I guess it’s just so he can be contrary and somehow too artistic to use a smartphone.

It was not blazing. It was not thrilling. It was not even mildly entertaining. I hated this book.

[Liz Alterman · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who enjoys reading about writers, I found this novel riveting from start to finish. Caleb's choices, while often maddening, were so human. Can't wait to read this author's next novel.

[Jessica Macdonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending of this is too good.

It took me a good 1/4 of the book to really get into this but once I did, I loved it. I really enjoy well-written dislikable protagonists so this book hit the spot!

[Neil Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A millennial-sniffer extraordinaire, dabbling in similar characters and situations to the patron Saint of millennial sniffers, Andrew Martin, Lipstein has written a fairly hilarious and quite entertaining yarn. As mentioned at length in the NYT review, there are some similarities to the plot of "The Plot" and that great tradition of texts about the protagonist's cunning plan falling apart in the most humiliating fashion possible. Think Shattered Glass, Fargo, or any of my most potent nightmare dreams.

[Claire Fridkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book started very strong and started to lose me as the narrator became more and more unlikable and the plot droned on and on - that said, loved the richness of the writing. the story is steeped in brooklyn sights and sounds! very glad to have read this even though i feel kind of ick

[Tuti · Rating 4 out of 5]

fast, fun & readable story of a young writer with difficulties in finding a story to tell - so he „steals“ one from a collegue and has to deal with the consequences

the question remains as to why one would want to be a writer if finding a story to tell poses such a problem

[Sophia Abbey-Kuipers · Rating 4 out of 5]

will trump era contemporary fiction be the demise of literature ?

3 or 5 stars, not sure i will decide later

[Joni Daniels · Rating 3 out of 5]

Self-absorbed thirtysomething writer can’t come up with a worthy plot. After visiting Avi who has had a four-way Tryst on a Greek Isle, Caleb writes and submits a novel based on Avis’ story. When Avi learns of this, Caleb makes a ‘ deal with the devil’ with his agent that Caleb gets the money and Avi gets the notoriety. The rest of the novel is Caleb trying to wrest back what he has lost, and a variety of women who are poorly developed characters that he picks up and puts down like toys. The characters aren’t particularly likable or redeemable, and Caleb never seems to make any decisions that are right, or work out well. In spite of the reviews, I didn’t find it witty, thrilling, or mesmerizing. It does bring up a timely question: do you own your own story? Regrettably, this didn’t answer it for me